Lone Wolf: The Immortal

After 2 votes each for climbing the hill and going into the cave (and a non-vote from Couch, who ruins everything) I will turn to the trusty d10 to resolve this one. Even we climb, odd we burrow. I roll a 10.

As you begin your climb, you hear the beat of wings approaching from the west. Kraan! By the noise they are making you estimate there are at least ten, perhaps more. You curse your bad luck, for the hillside offers no cover from the sky. If you are attacked during this difficult climb, you will find it nearly impossible to fight back and remain upright at the same time.

If you decide to draw your weapon and remain completely still, in the hope that the Kraan will not spot you, turn to 327.

If you decide to quickly descend the hillside and take cover in the tunnel, turn to 170.

I remember seeing a special on the Nature Channel about kraan. If we lie very still, it'll sniff us and walk away.

Within a few minutes, you can see the Kraan hovering over a hilltop behind you. At a quick count you can make out at least sixteen of these horrible creatures, each of which has at least two Giaks riding upon its back. They are armed with long spears and wear tall pointed helmets of dull bronze. You hear the excited grunts of the Giaks. They have spotted you.

You jump for the entrance of the tunnel some twenty-five feet below, but your boot gets caught in a thorny briar and you hang helplessly upside down--weaponless and vulnerable. Fortunately for you the end is swift: As the first Giak lance pierces your heart, death is instantaneous.

Your life and your mission end here.

Wait. What I meant was, it'd be stupid to just lie here on the hillside and wait for them to come kill us. The smart thing is to scurry back to the cave, like a cockroach. Stupid documentaries.

The tunnel is dark and the air is much cooler than outside. You carefully advance with one hand on the tunnel wall to aid your sense of direction. You have been in total darkness for three minutes when you detect the foul smell of decay ahead, similar to rotting meat. If you have a Torch and Tinderbox in your Pack, you may light the Torch to see your way ahead.

Suddenly, something heavy drops from the tunnel ceiling onto your back and you fall to your knees. It is a Burrowcrawler and you must fight it, for it is trying to strangle you with its long slimy tentacles.

Burrowcrawler: COMBAT SKILL 17 ENDURANCE 7

Cheeseburger: COMBAT SKILL 10 ENDURANCE 11

If you do not have a torch, deduct 3 points from your COMBAT SKILL during this fight. The Burrowcrawler is immune to Mindblast and Animal Kinship.

So much death... No torch, no mindblast. We have a cool -7 on the chart. Again. You guys are awful at this.

- I roll a 2. We take 7 snot damage from his mucus-y tentacle things. We rip his arms and legs off and kill him, only to realize he has neither arms nor legs. Damn. Cheeseburger 4, Giant Squid-Thing 7.

- I roll an 8. Now that we understand his body structure, we sock him in right in the tentacles. Hard. He loses 6 endurance. His tentacles respond by slapping me in the face for 3 damage. Cheeseburger 1, Giant Squid-Guy 1.

- I roll a 6. Well, shit. I suppose I could say that he bit our legs off and killed us, but he then chocked on our legs and died.

A friendly pirate happens upon your broken body while on a secret underground pirate expedition. He recognizes you as Cheeseburger, Savior of the Future and reattaches your legs using a long-forgotten pirate healing technique. You awaken, groggy and disoriented, to see a man with a strange hat and an eye patch. He mumbles something about "deus ex machina" then disappears. You feel like shit. Set your current endurance score to 1. Cursing your lack of combat skill, you press on.

Turn to 319.

You fumble about and grab what you think to be your belt from the jaws of the dead beast. You can see light in the far distance, and you sprint for it as fast as you can. When you finally emerge into the daylight, you fall onto the leafy ground and fight for breath in painful gasps.

Slowly sitting upright, you notice that you are still wearing your belt--you had not lost it after all. What you grabbed from the jaw of the Burrowcrawler was a leather strap with a small pouch and a sheathed Dagger halfway along it. You break open the clasp to find it contains 20 Gold Crowns. You may take both the Dagger and the Crowns if you are able to.

Feeling a little better now, you gather your Equipment together and push on eastwards into the forest.

Turn to 157.

Feeling a little better, my ass.

The forest begins to thin out until finally you can make out a road through the trees ahead. The highway is full of people heading south. Many are wheeling their possessions along on handcarts.

If you wish to join the refugees and perhaps learn more of what has happened in the north, turn to 30.

If you would prefer to continue to move south but under cover of the trees, turn to 167.

We've managed to sort of die twice here. We're faced with another decision, god help us. The refugees may have food and stuff we can steal. Then again, they are living things, and living things are pretty terrifying at this point. What do we do now?